Vietnam Business Law Blog

Official
letters (công văn) are regarded as
administrative documents (văn bản hành
chính) as opposed to a legal instrument and are intended to contain
correspondences from various authorities. However, in practice, in official
letters addressed to other authorities or companies, many authorities express
their views and interpretations of a legal provision. In many cases, Government
authorities even give instruction on how certain issues should be addressed if
there is no law regarding such issue or the law is not clear.

Accordingly,
although official letters are not legal instruments and do not have the force
of law, in practice, official letters provide useful interpretive aid and
guidance for lawyers and practitioners in Vietnam. The downside of relying on
official letters is that they are not always publicly available and the view or
interpretation contained in an official letter can be changed in the future or
conflict with other official letters or legal instruments. An official letter
issued by one authority may not bind another authority if the other authority
is not under control of the issuing authority.